


Something About Books And Covers?

by Deathshadow



Category: Good Omens (TV)
Genre: By an angel and a demon, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Transphobia, that is quickly destroyed
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-07
Updated: 2020-06-07
Packaged: 2021-03-03 23:28:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,701
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24593797
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Deathshadow/pseuds/Deathshadow
Summary: A girl walks into a bookshop during a thunderstorm. At least, she thought of herself as a girl, but her parents tended to disagree. That was how she'd ended up outside, soaking wet at 2 in the morning. With any luck, she might be able to hide in the shop and leave before the owner even knew she'd been there.
Relationships: Aziraphale/Crowley (Good Omens)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 27





	1. Rain

Mallory turned her brisk walk into an even brisker jog as the rain began to lash against in heavier and heavier waves. It was beginning to seep into the thin jacket she wore in more and more places and she began to shiver as ice-cold rivulets of water made their way down her back. She cast her eyes about desperately for a place to shelter in vain as a large clock tower chimed out a tune signally the arrival of the second hour of the day.

She’d slowed her jog to more of a resigned walk as she accepted that she was going to have to stay in the rain when a particularly bright fork of lightning cracked down from the clouds and illuminated the dirty windows of a rather old looking shop. There was a dim light barely visible in the murky windows and she felt a little hope build inside of herself. 

A quick bit of peering through windows that were more opaque than clear and Mallory quickly realised that there were no people within the front part of the building. She moved toward the door handle and tried her best to silently push it down. For whatever reason, it wasn’t locked and the door came open with only the slightest of creaks. Mallory took this as a sign and crept into the shop before manoeuvring herself behind a rather unsteady looking bookshelf, well out of the way of the faint beam of light that shone from somewhere deeper in.

A bark of laughter nearly caused her to jump out of her skin before she realised that it wasn’t in fact directed in her direction. She could just about hear the murmurings of conversation coming from two people at the back of the shop. Gulping slightly, she adjusted her small body so that it fit comfortably in the space and got ready to hunker down for the night. One of the books that were pretty much scattered everywhere was pressing rather sharply into her tailbone so she tugged it gently.

The resounding crash silenced the talking.

The book she had pulled out had apparently been fundamental in holding up the entire stack which very quickly came crashing down, barely missing her as dust scattered everywhere. Panic began to fill her mind as she froze, footsteps making their way towards her spot. She hoped that if she stayed completely silent, the people wouldn’t notice she was there. 

She was not so lucky. The dust particles floating in the air after the strange jenga tower of books had collapsed made its way into her nose as right as a shadow appeared in front of her. She tried her best not to sneeze but it wrung its way out of her anyway, hurting both her nose and her throat in the process. 

The shadow lowered itself to a crouch and tilted its head slightly in her direction. “Angel!” He shouted in a rather rough voice which made Mallory jump. “Come take a look at this.”

Her eyes went wide as more footsteps approached and a range of apologetic noises forced their way out of her throat, creating one big, unintelligible noise that brought a confused expression to the face of the crouched man peering at her. She struggled to scramble to her feet with all the books and let out a strangled yelp as she basically fell over the man in front of her, landing just in front of the shop door.

The light now allowed her to see the man who had found her, his dark clothes and sharp angles, as well as his bright ginger hair, looked rather intimidating from Mallory’s position on the floor and she quickly made her way to her feet, slipping a little from where her shoes slipped on the small puddle her soaked clothes had left. 

Another man appeared behind the first, looking the complete opposite to his friend, with pale clothes and an appearance that, for lack of a better description, looked rather soft. He looked sort of like someone’s grandfather from the victorian era. 

Both men looked took on puzzled expressions as they looked the young girl in front of them up and down. Mallory’s hands began to shake slightly as she anticipated the shouting she would get for being in what was clearly a closed shop at stupid o’clock in the morning. She should’ve stayed out in the rain rather than entering somewhere she didn’t know without at least knocking first.

The darkly dressed man opened his mouth and she flinched slightly, expecting him to start yelling or demanding to know what she was doing. Instead of that, the words that came out of his mouth were so unexpected that it was almost more terrifying.

“Are you ok?”


	2. Tears

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A proper introduction occurs

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Update 2 - 7/6/20  
> (6/7/20 for America)

The question caught Mallory by surprise and she stared straight at him for a few seconds, mouth agape, before snapping it shut with such force that it jarred her teeth a little. Was she ok? What sort of person asked the girl that had broken into their shop in the middle of the night if she was ok? With a hard swallow, she realised that she was not, in fact, ok. 

She swallowed again as tears began to burn her eyes before falling down her cheeks. She was very quickly losing control of all the emotions she had bottled up for the night and her silent crying became very loud sobbing.

The man in black inched forward, his mouth drawn down in a concerned way, though she couldn’t be sure as his eyes were fully covered by a pair of very dark sunglasses. She let him come closer and didn’t move away as he wrapped one of his long arms around her shoulders. Thinking that she couldn’t make matters any worse than they already were, she leapt forwards and wrapped her arms around him, burying her face in his chest.

When her cries eventually tapered off, Mallory moved back and furiously rubbed at her eyes. The other man lightly cleared his throat to get their attention. “I think you’d best come inside for a cup of tea my dear,” he said in such a sweet and gentle voice that she nearly began crying anew. With a slight nod, she followed the two men to the back of the shop and was promptly sat down on a rather garish looking sofa.

\-----------------

Despite her chilled bones and damp clothes, the tea she held in her hands sent a warm feeling throughout her entire body. No one had spoken but both of the men held tea in their hands themselves, sipping on it gently. With a sigh, the softer looking one opened his mouth to speak. “What’s your name, my dear?” Mallory didn’t know how to respond for a moment, contemplating her answer before making a decision.

“Mallory,” she replied quietly before preparing herself for the questions that always came after she introduced herself as such. They were usually along the lines of ‘You don’t look like a Mallory,’ or even worse, ‘Isn’t that a girl’s name?’ She had gotten quite used to those kinds of questions over the years.

“Well,” the man started and she braced herself, “that is quite a lovely name.” Mallory had to backtrack and replay the response in her head about three times before it truly sunk in. 

“W-What?” was all she managed to stutter out in response.

“I said, you have a lovely name,” he replied in the most honest voice she had ever heard. “This is Crowley,” he said gesturing at the dark man, “and I am Aziraphale.”

“Y-You aren’t bothered by my name?”

“Why would we be?” The darkly dressed man - Crowley responded.

“Well-” she started before stopping and trying again. “I look like a boy so most people usually ask why I have a girl’s name,” she muttered, feeling rather stupid about the whole affair.

Aziraphale began to reassure her that it wasn’t a problem when he was interrupted by Crowley. “Which pronouns would you prefer we used for you kid?” he said in a gruff voice. This confused Mallory a little, normally she had to ask people multiple times to use her preferred pronoun and even then some people refused. She had never actually been asked by someone.

Realising she was just staring at him, she opened her mouth. “I’d prefer she/her please,” she said in a nervous, almost untrustworthy way like she expected the two men to laugh in her face at any moment. Shockingly, both men nodded at her.

“Why are you in my bookshop at this time in the morning dear girl,” Aziraphale asked in a gentle voice. Mallory was more than a little surprised, no one had ever actually called her a girl before and she quickly discovered that she very much enjoyed it. It was a stark contrast from the many people that insisted that she was a boy in every biological sense of the word.

“I-It was raining and it looked really warm in here an-and I was cold I’m sorry” Her rushed reply and stuttering didn’t make her sound in any way convincing she knew but it was the only thing she could come up with. It was technically true and explained why she was in the shop but not what she was doing so early in the morning.

Apparently, this answer did not suit Aziraphale who looked at her to encourage her to finish explaining. She took a deep breath and prepared to tell them everything that had happened if only to get it off her chest and out into the open. 

“My parents, by that I mean my father, caught me applying make-up,” She started in a voice that only shook slightly. “He didn’t like it, said I had to be more of a man.” Tears were beginning to well up in her eyes again but she hastily pushed them down. “H-he said if he caught me doing it again that he’d shove me down the basement stairs and leave me there for a week with no food,” she finished, forcing the last sentence out as quickly and closing her eyes at the oncoming torrent of tears.

**Author's Note:**

> Hello and welcome, this is the first ever story I've written for this site. It's also the first fandom-related work I've ever created so I do hope I do justice to the characters.  
> P.S. If you notice any grammar/spelling mistakes point them out and I'll fix them.


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